Trades training in Sandy Bay Ojibway First Nation

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Published on Friday, September 29, 2017

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The Neepawa Banner

In 2016, Sandy Bay First Nation Chief Lance Roulette was advocating for women in trades while at a Conference in Ottawa. Chief Roulette was laying the groundwork for Aboriginal Women to enter into trades in the community. His work led to the development of a truly unique training program.

Since 2016, Sandy Bay First Ojibway First Nation (SBOFN) ASETS worked with its partners and the First People Development Inc. who supported the initiative and this began two years of planning and preparation.

Sperling Industries was awarded the contract to renovate the Crane Building; to make it into a state of the art meat cutting training site.

SBOFN ASETS staff laid the ground work, recruited, conducted interviews, delivered and corrected CAAT testing. Students received pre-employment job readiness training and Assiniboine Community College was hired to deliver Meat Cutting training. This program is funded by the Government of Canada’s Aboriginal Skills and Employment Training Strategy.

Hylife Foods in Neepawa will be accepting applicants for employment. Sixty students will be trained in Pork Meat Cutting by March 2018. Next year, SBOFN ASETS hopes to deliver the training to another 64 community members.  Proposals are being drafted up and submitted to offer a butchers certificate and the training site will be open to registration by other communities by year three.  A five-year plan for ongoing training will ensure training in the meat industry is made a priority in Sandy Bay First Nation, Manitoba.